Due to concerns regarding urban air pollution, as well as other factors, electric lawn mowers are gaining in popularity. Moreover, due to the inconveniences and operating limitations of corded electric mowers, battery operated cordless electric mowers can be preferred. As described herein however, such electric and/or battery operated mowers can have drawbacks.
By way of example, some of these drawbacks can be associated with the functionality of the battery. Such drawbacks can include insufficient battery life, and inconvenient battery manipulation (i.e., such as during installation and removal of the battery from the mower). Other drawbacks can be associated with self-drive transmissions. Some electric and/or battery operated mowers can incorporate a belt-tensioning drive system, whereby the tension on a set of variable stepped sheaves can be configured to control the speed of a drive axle from a continuous speed motor. Such a system however can be inefficient because the self-drive motor must run constantly at high speed, thereby constantly drawing maximum power. Furthermore, as is known in the art, efficiency losses can be observed in such a slipping belt system. According to other drawbacks associated with battery operated mowers, in some instances during high-load grass cutting (i.e., wet, and/or thick grass), the cutting motor(s) can reduce in operating speed. Typically however, the output speed of a self-drive motor is unchanged regardless of the high-load grass cutting. In this way, cutting performance as a whole can degrade because the speed of the self-drive motor is not adjusted in view of a given cutting condition.
According to some other drawbacks associated with electric and/or battery operated mowers, a mulching mode can be incorporated that is generally inefficient. Additionally, such mowers may require a switching process between a mulching mode and a discharge mode that can be cumbersome and present other performance drawbacks. Some other drawbacks associated with battery operated mowers can include inadequate driver feedback information. For example, it may be desirable for an operator to easily obtain information relating to battery-power, mower blade operation, self-drive motor operation and/or other information, such as operational faults associated with the mower.